Language Teachers’ Handbook

A Language Teacher’s Guide

to Assessing
First Nations Language
Proficiency

This Document Contains:

An Introduction

A Set of First Nations Language

Benchmarks

A Set of Classroom Ready Check-lists

Instructions on the Use of the

Benchmarks and

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 Check-lists to Assess First Nations
Language Proficiency

First Nations Language Benchmarks

Introduction and Overview

The First Nations Language Benchmarks (throughout this document either Benchmarks
or FNLB are used for purposes of brevity) have been developed to assist First Nations
language teachers in the assessment of their students’ communicative competence or
language proficiency. The framework consists of:

 four language skills

 Listening
 Speaking
 Reading
 Writing

 three stages of progression

 Stage 1 – Basic
 Stage 2 – Intermediate
 Stage 3 – Advanced

 three proficiency levels within each Stage:

 Developmental
 Progression
 Accomplished

 three competency areas

 social interaction
 following and giving instructions
 information sharing

Competencies

Competencies are intended to be general statements of intended learning outcomes. They

are directly observable and measurable indicators of language proficiency.

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 Social Interaction – interacting in a social situation, primarily in speech;

Following and Giving Instructions – understanding and following commands and

Instructions, mainly in speech and writing; and

Information Sharing – discussing and exchanging information, ideas, opinions;

telling stories, describing, etc. in speech and writing.

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Note: In this document, the term “language assessment” is used instead of “language
testing” since the intended use of the Benchmarks is both for placement (where
there are large numbers of students, placing them in appropriate groupings), and
for student achievement (assessing learning outcomes based on program
objectives).

Proficiency Stages

The FNLB framework has been constructed to depict language proficiency in three
stages, Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced. The stages all have the same structural levels
that are all characterized by:

 progressively more difficult communication tasks

 progressively more difficult communication situations
 progressively higher expectations of communicative proficiency (language
fluency)

Basic Proficiency (Stage 1 – Benchmarks 1 to 3) – describes the capabilities

needed to communicate in common and predictable situations and within the area
of basic needs, common everyday activities, and familiar classroom, home, and
community topics relevant to most First Nations students.

Intermediate Proficiency (Stage 2 – Benchmarks 4 to 6) – describes the

proficiency level of students who can participate more fully in a wider variety of
situations. It is the range of abilities required to function in most familiar
situations of daily educational and social experience.

Advanced Proficiency (Stage 3 – Benchmarks 7 to 9) – describes the range of

abilities required to communicate effectively, accurately, and fluently in most
educational and social contexts. Students at these levels have a good grasp of the
language and can communicate coherently and precisely.

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Note: “Native speaker performance samples clearly demonstrate that there
is a range of ability on different tasks among native speakers. There is no
one native speaker norm; the “norm” is also a range. Therefore, the mastery
criterion has to be pragmatically established by a sampling of performance of
competent language users in accomplishing a range of communicatively and
cognitively demanding tasks in a variety of specified contexts.” (CLB 2000)

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Benchmark Overview

This table will provide the reader with a general sense of the scope and progression of the
First Nations Language Benchmarks.

Benchmark Proficiency Listening & Reading Writing

Level Speaking Competencies Competencies
Competencies

STAGE 1 BASIC PROFICIENCY

1 Developmental Gradually increasing Interpreting Creating

proficiency in routine simple texts simple texts
and familiar class and that involve of social
2 Progression home situations that instructions, interaction,
involve social inter- social inter- classroom
action, commands, action and and home
3 Accomplished and information information. routines.
sharing.

STAGE 2 – INTERMEDIATE PROFICIENCY

4 Developmental Gradually increasing Interpreting Creating

proficiency in oral moderately moderately
discourse in complex texts complex texts
5 Progression moderately that involve of social
demanding social instructions, interaction,
contexts, classroom social inter- classroom
6 Accomplished and home situations action and and home
information. routines.

STAGE 3 – ADVANCED PROFICIENCY

7 Developmental Advanced Interpreting Creating very

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 proficiency levels in very complex complex texts
oral discourse in very texts that of social
8 Progression demanding social involve interaction,
contexts, classroom instructions, classroom
and home situations social inter- and home
9 Accomplished action and routines.
information.

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How to Use the First Nations Language Benchmarks

1. Who will use the document?

This document is intended for use primarily by First Nations language teachers in public
and Band-operated schools. Language curriculum developers may also find this a useful
resource to refer to in the “assessment and evaluation” section of written language
curriculum. Provincial developers of Integrated Resource Packages (IRPs) may also find
this information useful in developing and/or revising First Nations language IRPs.

Although the primary use of this document may be by First Nations language teachers
and other educational professionals, those who should benefit most from the use of the
FNLB are First Nations students. By using a systematic and appropriate method of
gathering information about the language proficiency levels of their students, First
Nations language teachers will be able to provide feedback to their students using the
FNLB descriptors in a consistent and constructive manner.

2. Organization and best use of this document.

This document presents the FNLB in sufficient detail to illustrate and define degrees of
language proficiency, performance indicators and tasks for 9 discrete levels of
communicative proficiency, in four language skills (listening, speaking, reading, and
writing) and in a variety of contexts such as the classroom, the home, and the community.

Language teachers are likely to have to use only small portions of the FNLB at a time,
particularly when carrying out observational assessments of students. A broader use of
the Benchmarks will likely occur when planning for instruction through the development
of curricular goals, objectives, and learning outcomes.

This Handbook is organized into the following sections:

a. introduction – which includes an introduction and overview, a discussion
of competencies and proficiency stages, a broad overview of the
Benchmarks and some instructions on how to use the Handbook;
b. the detailed Benchmarks; and

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 c. the Benchmarks checklist, which is to be used as a means to assess
students’ language proficiency levels.

3. Guidelines for users.

Before attempting to use the Benchmark checklist with students, please read the
introduction and overview section of this Handbook.

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Once you are familiar with the overview and the intended uses of the FNLB, and are
ready to use the Benchmark checklists with students, use only the proficiency stage that
you feel is appropriate for the student whose proficiency levels you are assessing. For
example, for a beginning student, use only Stage 1 – Basic Proficiency and follow these
steps:
a. look at the Benchmark descriptors in “Listening” and “Speaking” first to get
a general sense of the progression represented by each of the 3 levels within
that stage.

b. next, following a number of classroom observations of individual students,

use the Benchmark checklist (make copies for each student to use in your
assessment) to record your estimate of how each student is performing in
relation to each of the descriptors in the checklist. Use the four-point rating
scale to assist you in making judgements about the degree to which each
student meets the requirements of each proficiency level. (See below for the
four-point rating scale)

c. keep records of all your observations for each student until you have
completed a set of Benchmark checklists on each student in the class. It is
advisable to review these periodically to determine the progress that each of
your students is making in the course. At least one Benchmark checklist
should be completed and updated on each student for each reporting period
during the school year or course semester.

4-Point Rating Scale (Rubric) to be used with the Benchmark Checklist

The following scoring rubric is provided to assist language teachers in gathering

information about students’ language proficiency levels. Rate each student
according to the description for each number and use this number, along with
other comments, in the “Notes/Comments” column of the Benchmark checklist.

Rating Description of Student Performance

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 1 Not yet able to achieve this level
2 Needs assistance to achieve this level
3 Satisfactory achievement - pass
4 Exceeds satisfactory achievement

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4. Limitations of this document.

This Handbook is only one piece of the assessment “puzzle”. It represents only one
method of determining First Nations language proficiency and is by no means put
forward as the “best” or “only” means to determine student language proficiency.
Teachers will undoubtedly find multiple uses for the descriptors, such as helping you to
determine the effectiveness of your own teaching and perhaps using some of the
descriptors to describe the performance levels of your students on report cards.

The descriptors used in the various stages and levels of the Benchmarks and the
Benchmark checklists are intended as examples only and are not meant to be exclusive or
all-inclusive. The descriptors are intended to describe the range of students’ language
abilities at a particular Benchmark level.

Note: The information contained in this section is based on the information contained in
sections III and IV of the Canadian Language Benchmarks 2000 and has been modified
to better suit the needs of First Nations language teachers and First Nations students.

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 ATTACHED TO THE ABOVE INSTRUCTIONS WILL BE A COMPLETE SET OF
BENCHMARKS AND CHECK-LISTS AS DETAILED IN APPENDICES 5A AND 5B

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